Syracuse, NY – BrandiLee Schafran was driving home to Camillus this morning when she saw a big truck carrying a tree pull onto Interstate 690 west fromThompson Road in DeWitt. It was followed by an entourage of police cars.

The sight amazed Schafran. And then came the “aha!” moment.

It dawned on Schafran that she was watching Syracuse’s Christmas tree making its trip from its former home at the Wegmans’ parking lot on James Street to the head of the ice rink at Clinton Square.

“I feel pretty cheesy. I followed it all the way down here,” she said, shivering in the cold as crews from C&S Cos. used a big crane to move the tree from the truck to its spot on Clinton Square.

The move was quite a sight, Schafran said. Police stopped cars at every onramp to allow the Ricelli Enterprises truck carrying the tree to move smoothly through traffic, she said.

“It gets special treatment, that’s for sure,” Schafran said.

She snapped pictures with her cell phone for her four-year-old son who was in pre-school and missed the excitement. Around her, other amateur paparazzi snapped photos of the Norway Spruce that becomes a celebrity for the city’s “Home for the Holidays” tree lighting celebration on Nov. 23.

Christmas treeBrandiLee Schafran followed the Syracuse Christmas tree from Eastwood to Clinton Square.

She’d never seen the tree as it came into Syracuse, Schafran said.

Bill Porter, of Granby, was the Ricelli Enterprises driver who drove the truck and trailer from the James Street Wegmans, which donated the tree. The trip took a half hour.

It was a smooth trip, he said. “You don’t do 100 miles an hour when you have something this big,” Porter said.